The present invention relates to telephones and, more particularly, to a telephone accessory which realizes savings in long distance tolls and to a related method.
Traditionally, long distance voice telephony has used standard telephone instruments and the public switched networks (AT&T, MCI, SPRINT, etc.) to set up and make long distance calls. This involves using a standard telephone handset to dial a called party which initates connections through a local segment by a Local Exchange Carrier (LEC) and a long distance segment through the transmission & switching facilities of a long distance inter-exchange carrier (IEX). Toll charges for long distance calls therefore are comprised of two components: the local segment charged by the LEC and the long distance segment charged by the IEX. Toll charges for the long distance segment are typically based on distance and are considerably more expensive.
Recently, with the advent of the Internet, which is essentially a high speed digital data backbone network with worldwide points of access, several software vendors have introduced software that runs on conventional PC's that digitizes voice conversations and permits the transmission of telephone-like digital voice conversations over the Internet. This allows users with PC's that are outfitted with this internet voice software and special sound generating boards and microphones to initiate and carry on voice conversations for the cost of a local internet connection, thereby effectively obtaining free long distance service.
While this is functional, it suffers from several drawbacks. First, it requires the user to initiate calls and carry-on conversations from a PC. This feels unnatural to most users who are accustomed to making calls from their cordless or standard telephone. Even more problematic, it requires the called party who is receiving the via-the-internet call to be continuously logged on to his or her internet service provider (ISP) because there is no other way of signalling the called party that a call is about to be received. This has two main disadvantages. Some internet service providers charge customers based on usage of time. Secondly, a telephone line needs to be dedicated just for the internet connection. Most conventional telephone users would find this unacceptable. Recently, one vendor has announced an Internet Phone Gateway (IPG) that allows PC users to call conventional telephones by placing an internet call from a PC to a service provider's IPG that then places the call to the destination. This too suffers from two disadvantages. Firstly it requires the call to originate from a PC and second it requires the originator to subscribe to a service that provides IPG's.